The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1887-08-26

desert changes to the gfeeneSt or cultivated
lands. The arid desert is now seen only OH
the borders of the horizon, and the hills are
now lined with cattle and horses, which stand
out against this clear blue Colorado sky as
though they were painted upon it. The
ground is covered with the green of Holland
in summer, or of Egypt in winter, and you
look about you for the Dutch windmils or
the hard laboring Fellahin of the Nile valley.
The watered lands of Colorado are, however,
far different from those of either Egypt or
Holland. and irrigation here is carried OH on
O. far different plan from either. Holland
has to fight against too much water; Egypt
has to raise its supplies from the low flowing
Nile to the high lands along its banks; Col
oradG gets its waters from the high lands and
eaideayors to distribute them over those be-
low. Every bit of water is here utilized,
and had the state big river like the Mis-
souri, or the Ohio she would turn its flow into
wealth of agricultural gold. AS it is,
great bitches lead off in all directions from
such streams as flow from the mountains, and
it is estimated that the cost of the bitches or
canals in the state has already amounted to
$11,000,000. **x
These bitches, it is estimated, furnish
enough water to irrigate 1900, 900 acres of
land and more than 100000 acres are iIri-
gated by them. In other words, 10000 100
acre farms are being cultivated which few
years ago were desert. There are over 1000
miles of canals and large bitches in Colorado,
and the water thus used, if stretched out as
it here flows, would reach from New York
across the continent or to Liverpool and have
1000 miles yet to spare. The larger canals
are, in some cases. thirty feet wide and five
feet deep. They run from the mountains or
the rivers miles into the desert, and from
them branch canals run off in different direc-
tions These branch canals are tapped
and the bitches connected with them
allow the water to run in wide plow
burrows over the ground. The Loveland
and Greeley Irrigation and Land company
has great canal thirty-one miles long,
twenty-six feet wide and five feet Deep Its
grade is two and one-half feet per mile, and
it is said it will irrigate 2230O0 acres, though
only 10, 600 are under cultivation. 1t is this
canal that supplies the Greeley colony. which
Horace Greeley and Ralph Meeker laid out in
1870. 1t is a stock company in which the
farmers own shares, and it costs its owners
annually only what it costs for repairs This
canal has made Greeley, and Greeley is now
as pretty q town of 5000 people as you will
find i'll the Union. When Horace Greeley
located it it was gray desert, twenty five
miles away from the Rocky mountains. its
vegetation consisting of cacti and stray grass
not longer than pins. 1t was hot, dusty and
arid. Not blade of green grass showed and
not tree grew. Now it is as well shaded as
any .,ew England village, and it has hundreus
and hundreds of cottonwoods and other trees
which are forty and fifty feet high. 1t has
wide streets lined with fine houses about
which are grassy lawns, and it has big park
of several acres filled with shade trees Its
are those of rich agricultural
region and its lands produce good crops Its
people are of the cream of eastern immgra-
tion, and it has large class of wealthy resi-
dents. No liquors are sold in the colony, and
it has never had saloon. 1t is the only town
in the country with fence all around it, and
il hns gates at certain points in this wire fence,
with gate keepers to let the people i'll and out.
The fence l.l, is for 5ha haK GKaftlen en6 1T SnrSpqAds
incl0sure. #**
This Greeley ditch, like number of others
in Colorado, is. as / said, a stock company of
farmers. Other canals have been constructed
by capitalists, but in such cases high rates
for water are charged, and much of the liti-
CATION of Colorado relates TO water privi-
leges. The canal companies charge in the
first place royalty of so much per acre,
ranging from $40 to $35 per acre, for the
right to use the water, and then charge from
81 to ST. so per inch for the water used By
an inch of water is meant the amount that
will flow through pipe an inch in diameter,
and it is estimated that an inch of water is
enough to irrigate an acre of land when
number of acres are irrigated. In other
words, fifty inches of water will readily irri-
gate fifty acres, and 100 inches would irrigate
$50 acres,
The farmers object to paying for the right
to use the water, and the canal companies
force them to do so, claiming that their land
would be worth nothing without the water,
which is true and that, inasmuch as their
capital has made the lands valuable, they
should be paid for it. Irrigatable land
about Denver is high, and it is along the
High Line ditch that great deal of the
trouble that at present exists is found. This
High Line ditch was built by foreign capital,
Mt a cost of nearly three-quarters of million
of dollars. Its initial point is in the canyon
of the South Platte river, about twenty miles |
from Denver. 1t is eighty three miles
long, and at one point runs within four |
miles of Denver. 1t is forty feet wide, seven
feet deep, and it has an average fall of twenty |
inches to the mile Its capacity is such that |
il will rligate 80 900 acres of land or $40 100
acre farms, In 1884, about Il, 900 acres were |
Ill cultivation along it, and this area has since
been increased. 1t is, perhaps. the most costly |
irrigating canal i'll the United States, and its
works are built after the most approved |
methods. 1t has, at its beginning, tunnel |
700 feet long, ten feet high and twenty feet |
wide cut through solid granite, and it has |
dam near Denver which cost $4,000
***
Among the other leading irrigating COM
panies of Colorado are the Grand River Ditch |
company, with o capacity of 65, 600 acres and
a cost of S170, 600; the Uncompagre Canal |
company, which can irrigate rs, 600 acres, and |
whose twenty six foot wide ditch cost $780, |
Goo and the Citizens Ditch and Land COM |
pany, which has built canal forty feet wide |
at cost of $4,000, and which, it is said, |
can irrgate 100000 acres of land. Then |
there is the Fort Morgan Irrigation company, |
the North Poudre Canal company, the Del |
Norte Canal company and the State Land |
and Canal company. These companies have |
bitches which cost from 500, 900 to $315, 900. |
They are located in different parts of the |
state, and they are irrigating many thousands /
of acres of land They have bought land |
cheap before making their bitches, and now |
hold it at high prices.
FRANK G.. CARPENTER.
Why He Charged More. i